Forever
by black'nwhitepanda
Summary: Marrying the man you've always loved will not always end as a happy ending.


She always believed that marrying the man she'd always love would give her the best feelings any woman can ever imagine.

To wake up next to him before the sunrise and cuddle up whether the temperature is cold or not. To carefully slip out of the bed and prepare him the best breakfast he will ever taste; even better than what the best cook in the world can make because she intend to fill it with all the love she have for him. To fix his tie for him before he goes to work. To kiss him and wish him a happy and well day of work. To prepare him his lunch and directly deliver it to him to make his fellow workers envious of what his wife had carefully and lovingly prepared for him. To prepare him the sweetest and the most romantic dinner that will help him forget the stress. To wait for him to come home from a long day's work. To kiss him and tell him, _"Welcome home!" _and _ "You did a great job today!"_

On weekends, they will wake up later than usual. They'd stay in bed longer than they do during weekdays while tightly embracing each other like there'll be no tomorrow. They'd watch the cheesiest and the most romantic movie in their living room while he held her tightly in his embrace when it's raining. They'd take a leisure walk at the park and watch the children have fun with their friends. They'd sit by the bay and wait for the sun to set. They'd have a candlelit dinner and dance to the song that was the theme of their wedding. She'd let him kiss her in front of the public and let the whole world know just how much they both loved each other. They'd spontaneously go to a beach in the middle of the night to have stargazing and they'd cuddle up together as they wait for the sun to rise.

* * *

She was 5 when she first met him at the 50th wedding anniversary of her grandparents. Everyone was happy and wishing the old but strong couple many more years of healthy togetherness. She was young and innocent but she knew right then that when she grow up and she's ready for marriage, she'd want something like what her grandparents and even her parents have: happy and loving relationship.

She was 10 when her grandmother died. While she was crying almost every night for three weeks, she noticed that her grandfather didn't shed a single tear upon the death of his beloved wife. She had asked him why. Did he not love her at all?

"…_Death can never separate two people who have always been in love with each other. I love her and I knew that if I shed a single tear, she'd never have peace up there. Soon enough, we'll be together again and when that time comes, it would be forever."_

She was young and she was just beginning to form her logic. She didn't know why but she just simply understood every single word her grandfather had told her. She cried and embraced him. She told him that when she gets older, she'd want to have the same relationship as her grandparents have: loyalty and loving kind of relationship. Never mind if it'd be happy or sad, as long as they were both in love, she just knew that they can always get through with anything.

A week after their meaningful talk, her grandfather never woke up but he was smiling as if he finally has his ultimate peace. _Forever._

* * *

She was 15 when she met him again. It's been 10 long years that she haven't seen him but when she saw a dark haired boy with onyx eyes walking in the campus where she was studying, she just knew that it was him; only, he became taller and had deeper voice as she had heard from afar.

She was 16 when she took the entrance test to the same university she knew he was pursuing with a business course. He was, after all, going to inherit the company built and owned by his father after his brother rejected the offer to pursue medicine. She was seated behind his seat as they took the exam. She was done minutes before the examination's time was up but she was waiting for him to finish his exam.

Alas! He stood up and handed his papers to the proctor. She made her way to the proctor right after him and when they crossed paths once again, he just brushed past her. She stood still for a second and was disappointed that he didn't even say a simple 'hi' to her.

She was 18 when her loud guy best friend, Uzumaki Naruto, introduced her to him at the party of her best friend, Yamanaka Ino. As soon as Naruto spotted her lavender-eyed girlfriend, Hyuuga Hinata, he immediately took off and left him to her. It was an awkward silence for her because she's known him for years but it felt like they just knew each other after their best friend, Naruto, reintroduced them.

"_Do you, by any chance, remember me?"_

She was 21 when she met him once again. Not as acquaintance, schoolmate nor as friend but as her fiancé.

Uchiha Fugaku was in danger of being ousted as the CEO of the Uchiha Corporations after Orochimaru pulled out his thirty-five percent shares of the company. Orochimaru expressed that he'd only give back his shares if Uchiha Madara were to take over the company but no one even liked the vicious Madara to become the CEO of the company.

They were struggling for months until Uchiha Shisui advised that if the Uchihas were to tie-up with the Harunos, the shares that Orochimaru has pulled out would be more than doubled and that was why the only precious daughter of Haruno Souichiro and Haruno Yuki was betrothed to the younger son of Fugaku and Mikoto.

* * *

She was more than ecstatic and was looking forward to marrying him. She thought that she's more than ready to become a wife and excited to do the things she always believed in with her soon-to-be husband. Unfortunately, that has never been the case.

They've been married for 2 years now and not once did she experienced any of what she thought was the fruits of marrying the man you've always loved.

At first, she did everything she wanted to do as his wife: she cuddled up to him, prepared him his breakfast, lunch and dinner, waited for him to come home and everything. But all he did was to move away when she begins to cuddle up to him, skipped breakfast saying that he'd be late for work, rejected her home-made lunch said he was full after his lunch meeting with who knows who, skipped dinner said he was tired from work and just brushed past her like he did on the day they both took their exams. The truth is, she was the only one who seemed to be in love.

She thought that maybe, he's just awkward with her because he never proposed to her. They were just simply engaged without going through the process of courtship. She was delighted upon hearing their engagement. He was shocked and angry to say the least.

She'd been persistent in doing her best to make their husband-and-wife relationship work. He'd be effortless to help her correct what went wrong because he believed that everything in their marriage was wrong.

* * *

Most of the time, he'd go home at around 9 in the evening. Often times, he'd be home way passed 1 in the morning and some times, he wouldn't even bother going home. He'd only go home to wash up and for change of clothes then after, he'd be away, once again, to who knows where. And it went on for months after their 2nd year anniversary.

She, on the other hand, waited like a good wife. Scratch that, she was really a good wife. She's willing to do anything just to make things right with him but he was just so stubborn to accept the fact that they were now married.

She didn't tell anyone about their not so happy relationship, even to her parents. She won't tell anyone and if anyone would ask her how was her married life?

"_IT'S GREAT! I'M HAPPY THAT I MARRIED HIM."_

One day, she waited for him to come home but it just have to be the day when he just go home to wash up and get dressed. She fell asleep at the living room waiting for him and when she woke up, he was gone once again.

He knew she was waiting ever since so he told her to stop waiting for him at night because she'd only tire herself. She never listened. She said she'd wait for him to come home because that is what a good wife should do and he didn't bother to scold her. He'd let her wait for him in vain.

* * *

It was 12 in the afternoon when he was surprised to see his older brother entered his office. That day, Uchiha Itachi was casual.

"_What are you doing here?"_

There was silence inside the four-cornered room. Itachi never really visited his younger brother at all. How can he visit if his schedule was always jam-packed with patients here and there? They'd rarely see each other even if their parents called for a dinner with the family. Patients come first for him. He can't have them die in his hands.

"_How's Sakura doing_?"

"_I don't know. She's at home or probably with her friends."_

SILENCE.

"_Can you take care of your wife a little bit more?" _

* * *

She was seated at the kitchen. All lights were off apart from the only light that lit the bar where she was drowning herself with a glass of red wine.

"_It's only 7. You're early today."_

He walked towards where she was seating and took a seat directly in front of her.

"_I'm sleeping."_

She said leaving her husband alone at the kitchen.

* * *

The following days, he began going home late again. He'd go home and see her waiting for him quietly at the couch. She wouldn't say anything apart from a soft _"good night"_ and she'd walk back to their bedroom.

She would sleep facing her own side of the bed and he'd do the same.

Sasuke decided to stay at home for the weekend. Unfortunately, she just had to be out of the house the entire day and went back home a little bit too late.

"_Where have you been?"_

"_I didn't know you'd be home the entire day. You should've told me."_

* * *

It was a sunny Friday afternoon and Sasuke was seated at a fancy coffee shop in Suna waiting for his client.

After an hour dedicated for a business talk, they finally closed the deal and shook their hands. As his client was saying some final words, he spotted a woman he knew all too well was his wife with another redhead man walking slowly at the other side of the road.

The sun was shining brightly and he decided to follow the two, curious of why she was in Suna and where they were going.

Everything went to a stop. She fell down and he was clutching her. Sasuke, without another second, began running towards the two and knelt down beside the guy who was holding his wife.

Before the guy can even say anything, Sasuke grabbed her gently and carried her to the shiny black car that has just arrived.

* * *

Sasuke saw his brother checked his wife's pulse when Sakura finally woke up. As if on cue, Sasuke came walking towards their bed.

"_Why were you in Suna? Who was that guy? What happened to you?"_

Itachi sighed and stood away from the bed.

"_You shouldn't have let her stay awake for too long. She's sick, Sasuke!"_

His brother was screaming at him and he didn't even bother. He was more than shocked to know that his wife was sick.

"_You haven't even done any check-up on her."_

"_I did, Sasuke. The day I visited you was the day after I found out she has been suffering from it for weeks already. She needs surgery."_

* * *

A week has passed. Sasuke began going home earlier; even earlier than the regular time out in his office. He began taking more care of her, not trying to stress her out and making sure that she's eating the right kind and amount of food and enough sleep.

He never saw her smile until the day she saw him tried his hardest to take good care of her. It was the first real smile he saw from her since their wedding.

* * *

Sakura felt better after all the concern that Sasuke has given her and after all the time he took off from the office just to make sure that she was doing okay but that didn't last long.

"_You don't understand, Sakura."_

"_Sasuke, I don't want to! I don't know if I'd still be able to wake and if I do, would I still remember you?"_

She was crying so hard that she fainted once again. This time she woke up at one of the exclusive white sterile room of the Konoha Medical Center.

* * *

Sasuke was holding on to her small hand. Never mind the way he looked right now, after all the tears he had shed as if it was the first time he cried in his entire life.

"_Sakura, please… you have to have the surgery."_

"_But Sasuke-"_

"_If you wake up not remembering me, then, I'll make you remember me."_

"_Sasuke, can I ask you something?"_

* * *

A woman with bubblegum pink hair was irritably kicking some unseen dirt as she stared at the glistening flowing water in the fountain. She straightened her white dress, fixed her yellow cardigan and sat at the palisade.

At the middle of the plaza was a man with jet-black hair. He was dressed more casually today: white cotton long-sleeved V-neck top, grey knitted bonnet, black jeans and black converse. He was holding a bouquet of red roses, holding it out to the woman who was seated right before him.

An upward curve graced the lips of the emerald-eyed woman as she stared right back at the man with warmer onyx eyes.

* * *

She was sweetly smiling as she walked down the aisle, her arms linked to the arms of her beloved father. He was, on the other hand, standing at the other side of the altar waiting patiently for the woman he had learned to love.

They have exchanged their vows, kissed in front of the public. They've been genuinely married to each other for a year now.

They were lying closely together in the middle of the beach covered with warm blanket as the cold breeze blew their way. They were watching the stars and some falling meteors at the clear night sky.

"_Why of all places, do we celebrate our first anniversary at the beach?"_

She giggled. He frowned.

"_As long as we're together, no matter where we celebrate our anniversary, it would be the best and the most romantic celebration ever."_

He smiled and was about to plant a kiss on her lips. She stared back up the sky and closed her eyes. He looked up and there were hundreds of falling stars.

She opened her eyes and stood up. He followed wherever she was going. They sat on his car, seats inclined as they waited for a few more hours to see the sunrise.

"_What did you wish for, Sasuke-kun?"_

SILENCE.

She tilted her head up to see him fast asleep. She smiled and placed a chaste kiss on the corner of his lips.

* * *

Everything happened so fast. A few days ago, they were happily celebrating their anniversary under the starry night sky; a few days after, she was proclaimed to be brain-dead.

He can't believe she just left him like that. Making him hope for a happier and better life ahead when one day, she'll just suddenly leave him… _forever._

* * *

His phone has been ringing since the time he came home from work. It's been two months since the death of his beloved wife. He was silent and never shed at least a single lone tear.

Every night, he'd drown himself with the wine his wife used to love and right after, he'd drown himself with whiskey and silence.

_BAM!_

"_WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO YOURSELF, SASUKE?!"_

He never answered the questions his brother had thrown out to him. He was just staring blankly at the wall across where he was seated too comfortably.

"_Don't waste your life, Sasuke. This is not how she wanted you to be. Live again, Sasuke… if not for yourself, then at least… live for her."_

With that, his brother left not before he left a small parchment at the coffee table where the liquor was standing strong.


End file.
